The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-11-04
AFEAlRs OF re HEART.
what Miss Cleveland Has to Say About
Sentimental Men and Women.

What Miss Cleveland Has to Say About
Sentimental Men and Women.
I am convinced that the popular YER
1ict is in this case not the correct one,
and if these lines have an object. that
object lies in the direction of contri-
button toward an effort to show that
the truly sentimental man or woman
has the best preparation toward the
practical affairs of life.
AS usual, philosophy is at fault. The
word sentimental has suffered as much
detection from its simple, real mean
ing as has the word practical. The
latter has come to stand for things
real, the former for things unreal; or,
il more liberal minds deny the STRIFE
truth of this designation, they wal
scarcely attempt to reject mOdifca-
ton of it by which it is claimed that TO
follow the practical affairs of life is
to follow the things which are GER
tainly and surely the remunerat-
i've things of life, the things about
which we actually know, and whose
value is real because it is in things
seen and proven. While to follow
things sentimental is to pursue q shad-
ow, or at least thing which, if at
tanned, does not respond to the de
mands of a busy and effective human
career.
Nothing could be further from the
logic of human experience. Every
achievement has its beginning in the
mind. The Buddhists were right. r.
reality is in the thought. Here is the
root of the deed. 1t is the man of true
sentiment only who has behind him
and before him an effective human ca
reer.
a good mother was lamenting to me
the other day that her daughter, a
charming girl of sixteen, was so I'M
practical. As an illustration of this
quality, she repeated to me the ques-
ton which her daughter had put to her
in all good faith and sincerity: "How
does a person know when room has
been swept?' This young woman
needed to apply Goethe's maxim. She
needed perception. For the produc-
ton of Faust" or the sweeping
room, the same sort of practicability is
required. / do not know what is to be
done with her. Her mother desires
that she shall become occupied with
the practical affairs of life, but I am
not sure that the mothers ideas of the
practical are sharp enough to strike at
the root of the matter. To become
truly and effectively practical one must
see straight and feel right 1t is a
matter of pure perception and proper
sentiment. When this right action of
head and heart are obtained, the doing
will follow and, whether a book is to
be written or a room is to be swept, the
thing in hand will be properly classed
among the practical affairs of life.
After this it is all a matter of preoc-
cupatiOn. If the preoccupation be an
affair, as in the case Ofmy absent friend
of pure sentiment, 1. e., an afaire da1
cCe1tr, it will, as in her case, deserve
classification among the practical af-
fairs of life; her vast expenditure of
pure sentiment was accompanied by
a vast expenditure of pure perception,
and prompt energy and good money to
the infinite betterment of all con-
cerned. Had her preoccupation been
the same, but without the Brightness of
sentiment and purity of perception,
this affection of hers would have re-
suited in a mere waste of feeling and
would deserve classification among
those wretohed so-called afGires du
cBur which can never arrive at the dig
nifty of the practical affairs of life.
The mother of the impractical young
girl says, and not without a degree of
satisfaction. that her daughter Cwho
can not understand how person can
know when a room has been swept is
''all for books. Very well. That is
her preoccupation. Now, if to this
preOccupatiOn she brings right senti-
ment and pure perception, her preoccu-
patton with books will result practi-
cally If she has these she will know
the difference between clean and I'M
clean in the carpet of a room or the
character of a book. But l greatly
fear that healthy sentiment and clear
perception are not at present backed
by any sense of personal responsibility
in this young girls mind; and if so,
she has q great deal to learn before the
things which concern her can be said
to belong to the practical affairs Of life.
The root of all this which grows into
a busy and effective human career lies
in the sense of duty which develops per-
ception and sentiment into action,
which determines preoccupation, and
which brings out of all performance
which can be truly classed as among
the practical affairs of life. Let this be
the possession of the young girl and
she will become practical woman; let
it be the possession of the man of af-
fairs and he viii be a practical states
man; let it be the possession of a lit
erary man and he will become practi-
cal author.-ROSe Elizabeth Cleveland,
IA Boston Journal.